In May of 2002, me and
my 9/11 photos were included in a photography exhibit in Paris. Here are
a bunch of artifacts of the show and my trip:>
> > > > > > > > > > my trip to paris > >For a gallery of photos taken by me while
in Paris (101 in all) > click
hereFor information on the photography exhibition
I was there for > click
hereFor an interview with me concerning my
work > click
hereFor photos taken by French viewer Joel
during the exhibition's opening >click
hereFor a response and letter of protest (and
discussion) criticizing the people that hosted me at the exhibition >click
here

I love visiting other countries... everything's
so WACKY! Right now I am typing this on a European stylecomputer keyboard - ouch!

I am at Guillaume's apartment - right off
Avenue Bosquet and literally across from Champs de Mars - wow! Today after
I traveled through six zillion countries and zany German airports where
the workers ride bicycles through the hallways amongst the public - I finally
found his place after what I will call a Parisian subway "challenge".

Guillaume`s street is beautiful.

I had not seen the newly designed Charles
de Gaulle airport and I was very impressed - until you get to where the
renovations end.

Guillaume will not shut up about Jacques
Chirac and how I should have been here two weeks ago for the protests against
Le Pen - which were literally outside his window for a week and a half,
and which he participated in.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I go over to the gallery
in the morning and work out some details and the lecture (tentative at
this point) with Vincent and then Guillaume will come with me to the opening
at 6:30pm (yay!). I'm really excited.

I looked at the overpass where Princess
Diana was killed - the walls of the underpass and bridge are covered in
graffiti messages in dedication to her.

We walked all over Paris today and it was
fun but I have been here many times and am very excited to get out into
the country.

Guillaume and I have made plans to rent
a Smart car (this hilarious mini mini mini car that seats two only and
has been very popular in France for years but was news to me because I
couldn't stop laughing when I saw it) and drive to Normandy and anywhere
else fate takes us.

Real life is setting in. Paris real life
that is. Guillaume and I are such a married couple now. He is cooking pattes
oau pesto et saint nectaire frommage et vin rouge while behind me in the
alley an accordion plays and cats run around. Its such a cliché
its scary. It's pretty romantic.

I have had red wine every day I have been
here. We have been everywhere today. Including Marie Antoinnette's last
beauty salon.

There is a real language barrier between
Guillame et moi that is funny sometimes. I asked him to take me to the
place where Marie Antoinnette got her "head cut off" - we walked all over
Paris to get there (which was great as the sun was setting) and when we
finally got there he was like "Here we are! This is place where she had
her 'hairs cut' in prison before they took her off to the other side of
the city and had her decapitated!" Turns out we had walked past the French
Revolution bloodbath area about an hour earlier without notice. "Head",
"hair", same-sounding thing... big difference.

There is another funny language complication
story involving "hostage" and "off-stage".

Now we just had an argument about onions
and shallots.

Ce la vie!

A very cool and funny Parisian viewer of
my site, Joel, took Guillaume and I out to dinner after the opening last
night AND gave us a bottle of Champagne AND a book on Normandy - thanks
Joel!!! - ze French are so friendly et sweet! Everyone has been so cool
here.

It was disorienting to hear people "compliment"
and "rave" about my photos when they didn't speak English hardly at all.
I was like "Merci! Merci! ...I think?"

Of course I speak NO French (two semesters
in high school thank you) so I can't really talk (literally).

The exhibition opening was brilliant. I
have some great stories and even greater photos of the opening itself.
Including one photo of a child with crutches walking in front of me as
the Director of Culture was welcoming me to Romainville. Guillaume and
I were Patsy and Edina all night. Sometimes i can be a real fag. Guillaume
even tried to light one of my photos on fire! That was not a typo.

I love the way everyone dresses here. Every
age, every color... all amazing. There is a certain thing about the French
where they have this innate sense of what looks good - in their dress and
in their surroundings - architecture, product design, hair, paper cups,
garbage cans... Everywhere I go is brilliant by a design sense. It's so
odd. It's brilliant actually. They have a love of bright colors against
a plain surface that works it's way into everything. It's a breathtaking
city!!!

There is anti-Le Pen graffiti everywhere...

Tropicana makes blood orange juice here...
I have had some funny experiences in Parisian grocery stores.

All the vacuum cleaners in Paris are amazing
looking. There's that design thing again.

We have been hanging out a lot with Guillaume's
French friends... it's nice to see how the real people live here. One of
his friends has an AMAZING apartment.

I'm constantly exhausted while here.

The fat people here are skinny.

The food here is amazing.

Festivale de Cannes started tonight and
the city is in full celebrity wowie zowie. The festival this year is dedicated
to Jacques Tati... imagine that! Did you know Guillaume is separated by
2 degrees of separation from "Cathy"?

I am going back to Romainville tomorrow
to talk to some web design people about my website and how I made it "Prenez
beoucoup de photos de vomit!" and also take photos of the city of Romainville
- which the gallery is buying two of from every artist in the show to give
to the city as postcards(!)

Did you know Romainville used to be communist
and is part of the old French "red belt"?

The TV ads and billboards in Paris are
one degree away from XXX porn. Like for paper towels and stuff.

Tonight Guillaume and I are going to go
out and pick up some guy and have a menage a trios... at least that's the
plan. The men here are very very very sexy.

If I have to eat any more bread I'm going
to explode.

I fell asleep by myself yesterday in the
grass in the park by the Eiffel tower in the sun - long before the opening
- jet lag - when I woke up there was a photo of my feet taken with my camera.
Someone else or did I "sleep" photograph?

When I came back to Guillaume's apartment
- I heard him having sex with someone through the door, right before I
opened it - so I left and came back later. It was funny. When i came back
he was all "What you mean?" I keep teasing him about it.

There is a really cool theater right next
to the Pompidou Center playing Pedro Almodovar's new film "Parle Avec Elle"
which I am going to see in Spanish with french subtitles - I actually love
doing that and try to do it often when in foreign cities. It's hilarious!

Sunday it's off to Normandy in our Smart
car. We are going to re-enact Godard's "Weekend" frame by frame.

Yesterday Vincente took me to several Paris
galleries to introduce me and show them my work. One of the gallery owners
was this old guy who had a huge collection of Molinier (ancient transsexual
dada photographer) photographs and artifacts - brilliant!!!

Vincent introduced me to the director of
the Agnes B gallery in Paris and he was very cool and seemed to like my
photography a lot, and was pretty interested in working with me on some
level/maybe/possibly/sort-of/probably. You know how these things go. He
gave me some contacts in NYC too. I have to make a CD ROM of my photography
and music and stuff for Vincente and the Agnes B guy when I get back to
the states. It was very encouraging.

In the sub basement of Agnes B gallery,
it is semi-connected to the Paris catacombs and has curved stone ceilings
with racks of framed photographs by people like Harmony Korine and Ryan
McGinley and the walls are marked all over from graffiti artist O'Clock.
It was pretty wild.

I spent an entire afternoon in Romainville
( the French pronunciation of this is 'rhah-mein-ah-vee-la') taking photographs
of anything and everything. I got yelled at a lot by Romainville residents
for photographing the warped reflections of old buildings in car windshields.
They thought I was photographing the insides of the cars. All I was understanding
of what they were saying "Ya xeedd ne dssfy PHOTO jeje huyt fu fu ta!!"
and I would just put my camera away and walk away. It was funny. Vincente
liked this when I told him. It's for the postcard thing on some level/maybe/possibly/sort-of/probably.

Tomorrow Guillaume and I set out for Etretat
beach and that big castle on the other beach in Normandy. We are bringing
the champagne that Joel gave us and are either going to drink it WHILE
driving the smart car (nude) or drink it on Etretat beach at night (nude).
It turns out we are not going to be able to get the Smart car (boo hoo)
but are borrowing a car from a friend of Guillaume's. I can't wait to get
out of Paris... it will be nice.

I have been spending a lot of time in cafes
with Guillaume's French friends... it's been really nice. People spend
lots of time in cafes here. The conversations always break out into violent-ish
conversations about politics. Since i don't speak French I sit there smoking
(I have been doing that a lot since I've been here) and drinking red wine
and soaking everything I don't understand up like a sponge. Guillaume's
friends have been really cool about speaking to me in English here - or
at least making a kind effort too. Late tonight we are going to a jazz
club to see a friend of Guillaumes' boyfriend (boyfriend of the friend)
who is a sax player.

Right now some (very cute) French guys
are playing basketball in the alley behind me outside the window. It's
funny to hear them speak French basketball slang.

Oh by the way, regarding all the weird
emails we got, that comment in my last report about Guillaume and I going
out to meet someone for a "menage a trios": I(we) was(were) just kidding...
or was(were) I(we)?

Last night we went to a Paris gay bar.
It was what you'd expect I guess. They played my friend Nashom's song "Flawless".
Our taxi driver on the way home was bee-you-tee-full.

There is a theater here having a tribute
to Iannis Xenakis (r.i.p.) - I wish I was here for it.

I woke up this morning at the crack of
10AM all hung over from wine and French cigarettes and snuck out and left
Guillaume alone and crawled around the Louvre like a slug because I haven't
been in there since 1989 and felt like I had to go for some reason. When
my head started to split I forgot that reason and left. It was what you'd
expect.

Tonight Guillaume is going to see some
play about be-headed French revolutionary Danton and I am going to see
something at the movies alone. Maybe the new Almodovar film "Parle Avec
Elle" (in Spanish with french subtitles) or maybe "Star Wars II: Attack
of the Clones" (in English with French subtitles).

I can't wait to drink champagne nude on
the beach.

Mark

(5/21/02)(LAST) REPORT FROM PARIS #4:

I'm headed back to NYC this morning. We
ended up not being able to go into the country or Normandy at all... car
trouble... timing trouble... weather trouble... being distracted by romance...
however these last two days have been c'est magnifique... I have lots of
pictures to share when I return. Paris has been great.